It seems that Maranello and the Indians have something going on; after Massa’s accident, Fisichella was allowed to drive the Ferrari.
Now, ex-driver Sutil and mostly the Hulk seem to be battling it out for a spot alongside Alonso next year. This is from BILD, so although it is a tabloid, there might be some truth to it since they are known as very good researchers. It would make sense:
1) They had a good experience with a German driver, and the German media market is huge (great target).
2) They need a second driver who can deliver the points – both Sutil and Hülkenberg have shown they can do that.

Massa still might have a slight chance, based on his performance. The surprise seems to be that Perez would be out. He might not seem consistent enough.
I believe Hülkenberg will move to Maranello; in the article, he says he won’t comment on it, neither denying nor confirming. Sutil wants that seat, but I think he wants it more than they want him. Maybe he can get Hülkenberg’s seat.

Sutil messed up big time with one of Bernie’s buddies, how can he even think he’ll ever get another chance in F1 again? And if the journalist who wrote this doesn’t even know that much, why would I give any value to anything else he says?

A German paper who considers Ferrari’s two best options to be Germans? I don’t buy it.

Hulkenberg might be in with a shot even though I don’t think he’s really shone so far this year.
Sutil? No way. With 3/4 of the grid queuing for a drive with them, why pick a guy who’s been out of it for a year and wasn’t really impressive before that? He was fairly solid, no more, no less.

Personally I don’t think Perez is out of it yet. I think Ferrari wanted to calm down the rumors that arose after only a couple of races this year. It’s probably bluff though, as he’s one of their best options IMHO.

What happens if Hamilton goes to Mercedes? Would Schumacher get a call from Maranello? Would be very weird, and probably not the best idea, but it sure would make headlines…

I’m still hoping for Perez, and there still is a high likelihood this will happen. He has got good sponsoring (even though that’s maybe not as important for Ferrari than for other teams), he’s got a remarkable talent and is very consistent. Not to mention that Perez is driving a Ferrari powered car already, and the high percentage of Sauber drivers Ferrari has contracted in the past decade (Raikkonen, Massa..).

A German paper who considers Ferrari’s two best options to be Germans? I don’t buy it.

Exactly. Even the headline screams “look, here’s a couple of German drivers”.

I haven’t read a translation but are Bild actually saying they have a source for either claim?

That they’ve lumped two of them together instead of saying they have information about a single driver (as the BBC have done with their Hamilton-to-Mercedes story) makes it even less credible. It’s like they’re hedging their bets.

They aren’t mentioning the source, it’s just ‘according to BILD information’.

Hulkenberg has told BILD that he could neither confirm nor deny ‘that Ferrari thing’, while Sutil has said that ‘Ferrari are looking for a reliable second man, who scores points regularly. I think I’m capable of doing that.’

BILD is a tabloid through and through but I think that they were among the first, who spread the news about Schumacher joining Mercedes at the end of 2009. So it’s not like they have no good contacts at all and just publish nonsense all the time. As for this story, I don’t really believe in the Sutil part but I think that Hulkenberg might really be having serious talks with Ferrari.

It has to be Perez to Ferrari in 2013. What is the point of having a driving academy if you don’t promote your drivers to the main team, especially when they are clearly good enough to drive for Ferrari?

Ferrari never hire young, inexperienced drivers unless, maybe they have been in the Ferrari family in the past. For this reason, the only people I can see going to Ferrari are Kovalainen, Glock, Maybe Sutil or Perez. There’s no point having a young driver program if you’re not going to use the drivers from it.

As an ardent tifoso,i would like someone like Kovalainen or Hulkenberg to be signed by ferrari. Perez’s performances are more down to his and Sauber’s tyre management characteristics. Which is a good thing,but i doubt whether he would have managed to get any podiums had the top 10 tyre rule not been there. His qualifying performances have been quite poor this season,and i wouldnt want someone lacking in quali pace to be signed by ferrari merely on the basis of a few headline grabbing results….